Rumoured Vampire Weekend artwork revealed to be student hoax

An art student from America successfully managed to convince a number of websites and blogs that he had designed the artwork for the new Vampire Weekend album.

The impressive ruse was revealed by DIY, opening up the story of Thomas Calabrese and how he accidentally convinced a number of media outlets that the band's forthcoming third album would be titled 'Lemon Sounds' and that he was responsible for the artwork.

Calabrese, a student from Brooklyn, created the artwork you can see above as well as a fake tracklisting for the album which circulated around the web before Vampire Weekend officially announced the first details of their third album earlier this week. Some publications reported Calabrese's stunt as fact, forcing the band's label to issue a denial.

The origins of the artwork come from Calabrese being given a lemon by his tutor to photograph in a unique and interesting way. The class then had to post their pictures on Facebook and whoever got the most 'likes' would be deemed the winner. Calabrese decided to go for the win by picturing the lemon and presenting it inside the album artwork. "I'm excited to share the artwork I did for Vampire Weekend's album coming out later this year," he posted alongside the picture. "I was told I wasn't able to talk about the project until it launched, and this morning I was sent their teaser website! I did a lot of variations and was happy to see they picked the more out there design. I can't wait to see the full album package in stores!"

Speaking about the plan, Calabrese said: "I knew a lot of my friends would respond positively to me pretending to make a Vampire Weekend cover. I was winning until yesterday, when someone surpassed my 93 likes with a photograph of an anniversary picture being consummated with two 'lemon manhattan' drinks."